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zfs and snapraid

W

wkearney99

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
370
I'd like to configure a box to provide fast CIFS storage, iSCSI and also be able to run snap raid. For fast ZFS the best solution appears to be openindiana. So what about setting up a VM in Virtuabox to run a linux distro for snapraid?

It's a 24-bay chassis, I'd likely use 6 of them for a ZFS raidz2 pool. Then pass the rest to the snapraid VM.

The goal being fast, redundant network storage for some files and the rest in a 'less redundant' but expandable JBOD for media files. It's a dual purpose setup here, one being home office storage (the raidz2 pool) and then a bunch of media files (music, dvds, etc). The latter doesn't change with any frequency so using a system like snapraid seems like a reasonably solution. Trying to set it all up within ZFS pool would be overkill, not to mention a hassle to expand.

Using ESXi is less ideal in that the existing hardware (SAT2-MV8 cards) are not supported directly.

So what're the opinions on using virtualbox in OI to run a linux VM for snapraid?
 
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Hmmm, I know vbox can do that, but I don't know that you could plug/unplug drives on the fly (if that is needed for snapraid.) Aside from that, doesn't sound unreasonable... Without knowing more about your disk farm and such, it's hard to say more...
 
Remember disk performance is never excellent on a VM that emulates disks versus one that passes the HW directly to the VM. Although if you only have GBit connections to your clients you will only notice the performance loss when you rebuild the array..
 
Right, I'm not too worried about hotplug for any of this. I can live with having to bring down the snapraid VM for drive maintenance (failure, expansion, etc). I'd prefer to keep the CIFS server running, but the environment's not demanding enough to require it.

The mb is a supermicro X7DBE-X (5000 blackford chipset, so no VT-d) and three SAT2-MV8 SATA interfaces, connected to hotswap backplanes (not expanders) for SATA drives. Nothing terribly fancy.
 
drescherjm said:
Remember disk performance is never excellent on a VM that emulates disks versus one that passes the HW directly to the VM. Although if you only have GBit connections to your clients you will only notice the performance loss when you rebuild the array..
Click to expand...

Right, I'm planning on passing the raw discs to the VM. I'd pass the PCIx cards directly but can't as the chipset doesn't support VT-d. This is surplussed hardware, not a new build, so I realize there are work-around issues. At some point punting for a new MB setup might be likely, but I'm not there yet.
 
If snapraid is the only reason for messing with the VM & Linux, AND if you've got the software chops, a port of snapraid to OI should be very straightforward.
 
UhClem said:
If snapraid is the only reason for messing with the VM & Linux, AND if you've got the software chops, a port of snapraid to OI should be very straightforward.
Click to expand...

It may be just a matter of compiling it. If it doesn't "just work", I guess the required changes would be minor and the author would probably be glad to assist with any needed changes.
 
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